3 builders who never spoke to each other
Sell the thing you built for yourself
Solve your own internal problem in a generic way rather than tangled into the existing product and you get a second sellable thing out of the same work, whether that is an infrastructure layer, the finished codebase of a demo, or the prospect list you assembled for your own outreach. Tooling sold to the developers you already are is where this concentrates.
The method
- 01
Solve the internal problem in a way that is generic rather than specific to your existing product, and you get a second sellable product out of the same work.
- 02
Sell the finished codebase of your demo project as a paid add-on so buyers can see how a real production app is assembled.
- 03
Selling tooling to the developers you already are is where the money concentrated: a boilerplate codebase for building SaaS apps grew into the large majority of his revenue.
- 04
Turn the prospect list you built for yourself into its own product and sell access to agencies, consultants and investors.
What it returned
- 80%
SaaS Pegasus accounts for roughly 80% of Zue's income, has over a thousand users, and has been used to build hundreds of products including YCombinator companies
The sync layer was deliberately built untangled from PDF, then shipped as a separate product and also used silently inside the web SDK
Zue planned to release the translation app's full codebase as a Pegasus add-on and floated turning it into a marketplace for other users to sell their apps.
CyberLeads and GrowthList both sell packaged lead lists.
Sources
- Real-time collaboration, Apple, and you | Peter SteinbergerPeter Steinberger · steipete.me · PSPDF Instant · 2016-09-08
- Lead Generation: Strategies, Lead Generators, Expected ReturnsDru Riley · trends.vc · ☁️ Opportunities · 2020-08-27
- The retro is dead, long live the retro!Cory Zue · coryzue.com · This Month · 2024-03-01
- Using Coding Skills to Make Passive IncomeCory Zue · coryzue.com · The transcript · 2025-01-14
the second source
Three plays a week, for the phase you are in
No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.
More in product
- Give away a tool that pulls its own audience7 unconnected
- Take many small shots instead of one big bet6 unconnected · contested
- Get it into real hands, or shape it first6 unconnected · contested
- Cap the hours and let the ceiling design the business6 unconnected · contested
- Set the bar for writing code deliberately high6 unconnected
- Buy nothing until there is revenue6 unconnected